Ag businesses ask legislators for help with labor shortage
With Maine facing farm labor shortages and rising prices, the American Business Immigration Coalition, Maine Chamber of Commerce and other Maine business and community groups last week asked U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, to support Senate agriculture workforce solutions.
In a letter to Collins and King, the groups said the goal is to address inflation, lower food prices, ensure grocery store shelves remain stocked, and enhance national food security by protecting domestic agriculture production.
The letter’s signatories include Maine agriculture and business leaders, including Harry Ricker, owner of Ricker Hill Orchards; Jenny Tilton-Flood of Flood Brothers Farm; Jake Pierson, co-owner of Pierson’s Nursery and a member of AmericanHort; Maine State Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dana Connors; HospitalityME President Matt Lewis, Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association Executive Director Christine Cummings, and David Barber, a board member with American Business Immigration Coalition Board member and former president and CEO of Barber Foods.
Other signatories were Heather Spalding, deputy director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association; Ellen Griswold, vice president of Maine Farmland Trust; Christine Cummings, executive director of the Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association; Kelly Flagg, executive director of AGC- Maine; Curtis Picard, president and CEO of the Retail Association of Maine; Beth Stickney, executive director of the Maine Business Immigration Coalition; Betsy Biemann, CEO of Coastal Enterprises Inc.; Suzanne LaFreniere, director of public policy at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine; Ben Conniff, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Luke’s Lobster; Jim Brady, president and director of Fathom Co.; Andrew Taylor and Arlin Smith of Big Tree Hospitality, owners of Hugo’s, Eventide Oyster Co. and the Honey Paw; Dana Street of Street and Co., Fore Street, Scales, Standard Baking Co. and Upstream Trucking; and Jon Stein, co-founder and owner of Fogtown Brewing Co.
The letter says that many farm operations in Maine are having to make painful decisions to either cut production or exit the business entirely.
“Without passage of urgently needed reforms to offer permanent residency to the immigrant farm workforce that for decades has been the backbone of our ability to get food from farms to U.S. tables, and to greatly improve the H-2A agricultural worker visa program, this reality will only intensify in Maine,” the letter says.
The letter says the pandemic “underscored the weak links in the nation’s food supply chain, and the critical importance and resilience of local food systems.”
It continues, “A path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who are integral to the nation’s and Maine’s existing farm workforce, and improvements to the H-2A program including year-round visas, reduced bureaucracy for farmers, and provisions ensuring fair wages and working conditions for farm workers, are critical reforms needed to provide the agricultural sector with a consistent and reliable labor supply.
“Maine’s farms need harvesting and our cows need milking. We need a stable workforce to get it done, and the safety of our nation’s food supply hinges on it. In addition, farmworkers and their families are vital members of our communities. Ensuring safe and fair working conditions and providing them with a path to permanent residency is simply the right thing to do for these individuals who have already contributed so much to Maine and the nation.”
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